Reprocess an Old Tablet – Three Remarkable Ways

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If you’re something like me, you’re starting to amass quite the tablet compilation. Sure, yes, I write about them for a living, thus I probably own more than my fair share. However now that these devices have been about a few years and prices continue to plummet, I’m estimating you’ve got an older model or two in the closet, assembling dust.

You might attempt to get a few bucks for them on Craigslist or Ebay, or you can bequeath them to the kids for games, books, and movies. However there are other ways to recycle an old tablet, a few of which might surprise you.

1. Create a devoted music server

I’ve always been charmed of Sonos music systems, which put an everlasting supply of music at your fingertips; however I’m unwilling to pay the premium price for individual.

Auspiciously, I don’t have to: With just about any old tablet & a standalone speaker, I can valve into all the music of the world.

For starters, I suggest getting a Bluetooth speaker or speaker dock — somewhat designed to pair with a Smartphone or tablet. Bluetooth speakers are particularly great if your tablet supports that trait, as you can access all your tunes devoid of having to stay physically tethered. Immediately I’m loving the Braven 850, a compact although powerful Bluetooth speaker that can fill any tiny- or medium-size room with warm, rich aural.

From there it’s merely a matter of stocking the tablet with your music compilation and a good assortment of music-streaming apps. Besides obvious choices like Pandora and Spotify, be certain to check out Rdio, Slacker and TuneInRadio. This final lets you listen to local radio stations from about the world, all free of charge.

And if your tablet lacks adequate storage for your entire own library, you can stream it from your PC utilizing a music-server solution like Plex.

What’s cool regarding all this is that your tablet serves not only like the gateway to all this great music, but also the organizer.

2. Create it a permanent photo frame

Digital photo frames are excellent, creating an endless slideshow of your preferred pictures but this is not just a few dozen, however hundreds or even thousands of them.

If your aged tablet is collecting dust, why not repurpose it for border duty? All you need is the correct app — preferably one that can drag photos from online sources instead of simply displaying those loaded into the tablet’s reminiscence.

For instance, Digital Photo Frame Web for Android will exhibit a running slideshow, complete with fades & other transition between pictures, and can entrance local, Flickr, Facebook, and Dropbox folders. As a result, whenever you want to insert photos to the “frame,” you could merely e-mail or upload them to one of those accounts.

If you contain an iPad, it’s even easier. There’s a slideshow trait built right in, and in fact this would be a large way to leverage Apple’s Photo Stream trait: Any new shots captured by your iPhone can automatically show on your iPad.

3. Contribute its processing power to science

An elderly, single-core tablet processor may seem as a dinosaur nowadays, but it’s still far more influential than the computers that get the Apollo astronauts to the moon. Huge powerful, in fact, that it could help lead to scientific penetrates.

Some projects aim to leverage your Android tablet’s superfluous processing power to discover new stars and search for new techniques to treat AIDS.

Earlier, these volunteer computing endeavors were limited to real computers, but as noted by IBM, mobile devices, total computing power surpass that of the largest conformist supercomputers. In other words, there’s numerous untapped tablet power out there that could be harnessed for well.

To unite the citizen science brigade, simply install an app named BOINC on your unused tablet, and then leave it clued-up so it can continue to operate. In switch for a tiny bit of electricity, you can assist the world. Pretty cool deal, I’d say!